Although transactions are increasingly executed online and using transaction cards, checks continue to be used for executing transactions. A check includes an order of a payer to a financial institution. The order directs the financial institution to pay an amount to a payee.
A financial institution that is subject to an order to pay the amount on behalf of the payer may be a drawee bank. The payer orders the drawee bank to pay the amount. The amount may be debited from an account of the payer held at the drawee bank.
The payee may receive the check as payment for services or goods provided to the payer. The payee may receive the check directly from the payer. The check may be issued by a bill-pay vendor. The bill-pay vendor may provide check issuing services to the payer. The bill-pay vendor may receive payment instructions from the payer. The payment instructions may direct the bill-pay vendor to generate one or more paper checks. The bill-pay vendor may convey the paper check to the payee.
The payee may present the check for deposit at a depositary financial institution (hereinafter, “depositary bank”). The payee may request that that the amount recorded on the check be credited to an account of the payee. The depositary bank may provide financial services to the payee. A service provided by the depositary bank may include processing of a check issued by the payer.
Processing of a check may include receiving a check from the payee. Processing may include receiving a request from the payee to credit an account of the payee. The credit may correspond to an amount handwritten by the payer on the check.
The depositary bank may receive the check and transmit a copy of the check to the drawee bank. The depositary bank may request that the drawee bank transfer funds to the depositary bank. The funds may correspond to the amount indicated on the check. The funds may be credited to an account of the payee held at the depositary bank. A check clearing process may begin with a deposit of a check by a payee and terminate with a transfer of funds from a drawee bank to a depositary.
The drawee bank may provide services to the payer. The services may include check services. The check services may include fraud detection services. Check fraud may include a printing of a check that is not authorized by the payer, the bill-pay vendor or the drawee bank. Check fraud may include presenting a check for deposit without authorization from the payer.
Check services may include presenting a deposited check to the payer for confirmation. A digital image of the deposited check may be presented. The drawee bank may not process a check for payment to the payee unless confirmation is received from the payer. Check services may include stopping payment on a check or temporarily suspending a clearing process of the check. Check services may include, prior to debiting an account of the payer, reconciling a deposited check with a ledger maintained on behalf of the payer. Check services may include filtering deposited checks for suspicious or out-of-pattern checks.
Various check services provided by the drawee bank may streamline a processing of checks and reduce incidence of check fraud. However, a drawee bank may not have access to all checks issued by a payer. For example, checks issued on behalf of the payer by a bill-pay vendor may not be available to the drawee bank until the payee deposits the check. Without prior information relating to each check associated with a payer, a drawee bank may be unable to provide a full variety of check services to the payer.
Furthermore, a selection of one or more check services may depend on one or more attributes of a check. For example, to determine whether to initiate a “stop payment” on a check, a payer may wish to visually examine one or more segments of the check. Upon visual inspection, a signature segment may be found to include a signature that does not correlate to a known signature of the payer. A visual inspection of the check may indicate that a numerical segment stating the amount does not correspond to a segment describing the amount in words. However, a visual inspection may be associated with time and labor costs.
It would be desirable to provide a treasury management system that provides check services available in conjunction with a display of one or more check images. It would be desirable, to provide a display of checks and check services to a payer in a manner that allows a payer to efficiently view a plurality of checks and identify unauthorized checks. Therefore, it would be desirable to provide apparatus and methods for digital check image shifting.